352 ACCOUNTING FOR MANAGERS
financial matters. Furthermore, planning and budgeting activities began to assume
a new significance. Formerly, they were introverted acts of cost containment. Now
they came to symbolize the search for profit-maximizing opportunities.
Commenting on the importance of these changes in formal systems, a Business
Manager observed:
We had responsibility for improving the profitability of the railway. But
it wasn’t clear who was in control – I think there was some diffidence in
spelling that out with the utmost clarity. We lobbied to get control of the
planning process. Clarity has emerged, now that we have taken responsibility
for planning and budgeting. That’s become our power base.Over time, these changes cumulatively extended the opportunity for Business
Managers to interact with engineers and operators far beyond their original
remit. Through this interaction, their ideas became more specific. But they were
still located in the Head Office. Accordingly, in a later episode, they set about
extending their influence into the regional organizations. They appealed to the
Chief Executive for the appointment of individuals to represent their interests
within the regions. These Regional Business Managers, once appointed, carried the
economic perspective deep into the regional organizations, carving underneath
the regional General Managers and giving Business Managers a direct line of
influence to operational activities. One commented:
People in the regions are used to doing things without asking. They find
themselves subject to our scrutiny. I can take things up in a big way, if
necessary, and howl for their blood.And commenting on their influence, an operations manager in the regions
observed:
Five years ago it would have been revolutionary to challenge what an
engineer wanted to spend money on. Now it happens frequently.Consolidating the emerging reality through symbolic events. Through interaction
in meetings and elsewhere, many in the organization began to understand the
Business Managers’ emerging reality. Most also found it appealing. The continual
attacks on the competence of public sector managers had worn morale down. To
be business-like was ‘‘good’’, it gave them pride, and made the railway modern.
Increasingly people came to share the normative symbolism of the ‘‘bottom line’’.
But to a large extent this was uncoupled from their concrete day-to-day activities.
Meaningful symbols relating to everyday tasks, events and recollections through
which people could connect the business reality to their ongoing decisions and
actions, were absent.
As the situation unfolded, this changed, however. In parallel with the formal
changes, a sequence of important events was enacted. The Business Managers
staged ‘‘contests’’ with the regional General Managers, forcing collisions between
the railway culture and the business culture. As before, they worked through the